Open wound and maggots! What do I do?!?

[FarmGirlNE]

Ok, not a chicken problem, but... I got this turkey from my neighbor, I didn't check him over when I got him... he acted healthy, his feathers were a bit ragged at the ends, but they were kept in a coop with no outside run, I figured he'd look healthier after free-ranging for awhile... also it had been rainy and muddy, and some of mine get a bit dirty/ragged looking when the weather's like that, so I didn't think anything of it.

Today, bf noticed something wrong with the tom, and we started checking him over, lifting up his feathers, he has open wounds at his butt and his back near his butt is covered in maggots! We dusted him really good with sevin, but don't know what else to do... we did check over my turkey hens, they were ok, but we dusted them anyway. The turkey hens and our chickens and guineas all dust-bathe often, we're not too worried about them, but will be checking them all over the next couple of nights, and will probably dust them and spray the barn...

Do I need to confine my tom? bf says he had a rooster with maggots years ago, he dusted him, but the roo didn't make it, but none of his others had any problems...

Is there anything else I can do??? I told my neighbor to check his other turkeys and chickens, bf says a big cause for it could be that the neighbor's are in confinement, no outside pen, and no dust baths, he thinks this tom must've had it when we got him, just wasn't noticeable then.

Help!!

 

[MandyH]

Depending on how large the wound is and what the cause is, maggots are really beneficial to healing a wound. They only eat the dead tissue and make way for new ,good tissue to grow. I don't know if that makes you feel any better or not though. I would want to know why he has maggots in the first place. Could it be poor living conditions, fight with other bird, predator attack etc.... Anyway, good luck. I don't think the maggots themselves wouldn't be a reason to isolate him from the others.

 

[thndrdancr]

Maggots are not beneficial to a wound in a bird tho, they need to be flushed out until they are ALL gone, they will eat the flesh.

Can someone tell me how to link a post and link Wolfpackers post about his hen, Chicken Matthews? Or do it for me, please?

Jill

Thanks!

 

[Sharisr32]

I may take heat for this but it is a works for me -
First rinse and dry the wound -- get all maggots out then use solar cane- the sun burn spray it aids the wound to heal - in to out - and flies won't get near it for some reason - it cools the wound and I have had excellant results with feather regrowth.
hope the bird does ok

 

[dlhunicorn]

Quote:
...the above statement is true...maggots should be vigorously controlled and removed and for the first two days you will need to do this every few hours cheking into the deeper tissues (including the vent!!!) and will probably need tweezers to remove the smaller ones that are embedded (use plastic tweezers preferably)... they are carriers of bacteria and toxins that will kill your bird outside of the damage they will do to the flesh as there are only a VERY few sorts that prefer only decaying flesh and all the rest will simply gorge and use the living flesh to reproduce in! Benficial /medicinal maggots are farmed in laboratory conditions and are sterilized and believe me there are NONE of this type in "the wild"...) yes I have links on this but have no time today to go search them out but if requested I can do so... this is a misnomer that confuse many ppl and if you do not VIGOROUSLY treat this condition (called myasis ) your bird WILL die. If you can possibly get it treat with amoxcillin (systemic antibiotic) at 250 mg. per kg. (a kg is 2.2 lbs)

 

[Wolfpacker]

Here's my thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11007

It's a long one, so I'll try to give you the Reader's Digest condensed version.

Something grabbed one of my chicks through the fence and injured her wing. I took her to the vet (non-avian specialist) and she stitched it up and gave me amoxicillan. I took her home and put her back in the run. A couple of days later, her wing was smelly, so I lifted it and could see some little tiny movement. I knew immediately what it was so I brought her inside, flushed it with hydrogen peroxide and put Neosporin on it. After 2 days, the maggots kept appearing and were getting much bigger. I had to take her to a bird specialist and the wing had to be removed.

The vet told me that the maggots were feeding on dead flesh caused by infection. The amoxicillan was not strong enough to stop the infection from spreading. The Batril she prescribed did stop the infection. She did say that, because birds' flesh is so tender, maggots will feed on live flesh. She also said it is VERY difficult to get rid of them short of picking them off individually. They had to sedate my bird to do it, only to find the wing was so infested and infected, it would have to be removed.

I hope that's about it. Read the thread for more details.

PS - I'm glad someone remembered Chicken Matthews'

valiant effort to recover!

 

[tink]

Maggots took a friend of mines Great Pyrenies in 10 hours. It was called a Fly Strike. They are not good for animals. I would say Peroxide and Neo daily until you dont see any movement.

Google " Fly strike" it migth give you some info

Tink

 

[dlhunicorn]

http://www.cvm.okstate.edu/instruction/kocan/vpar5333/5333ot5d.htm
...at the bottom of the article read about "blow flies"... these are usually the type you have problems with in poultry

 

[FarmGirlNE]

We checked him over today, the Sevin killed a lot of them, he looks much better, we mixed up peroxide and water and put that on him... and I don't know how good this is, but sprayed flying insect spray on him to keep the flies away, did that last night because we couldn't clean him up last night, and he was ok, so sprayed more after cleaning him up today...

Still haven't been able to really flush it out, it's about to storm, as soon as it's over we'll get out there and flush it out good and give him a bath... I feel so awful putting it off like this, but I can't get the point across to my bf that it needs to be done ASAP and I need help with it... so it'll have to wait till after the rain.

I tried to go out and do it myself a little bit ago, while bf was gone, but the turkeys like to hang out under a semi trailer out there, and the tom was under there, and when I tried to get him, one of the hens came after me... the hens protect the tom lol So figured best bet will be to get out there right after the rain, while he should be in the barn and we'll be able to catch him.

He seems to be a bit better today, yesterday he was walking a bit funny and pretty lethargic, today he's walking ok and eating quite a bit... but I know not to get my hopes up and if I don't get it really cleaned up soon there won't be any hope... I wish my bf could understand that.... *pulls hair out*

thanks everyone for the suggestions, I'll keep y'all posted... I haven't been able to get a good look at the wound, considering yesterday it was covered in maggots, today as soon as we got hold of him, bf poured the peroxide on him, let it sit a bit, then let him go. I'm gonna look him over real good after the rain and take care of it the best I can.

Oh, and I noticed one of our black hens had something that looks like dandruff on her, bf said it's probably white mites, we'll be dusting all of them, starting tonight when they go in to roost, and cleaning up the barn and dusting it... We've had some roos and hens losing feathers, bf says just a few of them molt every year, I was at first worried it was mites, but being so new to all this, and his chickens not being very tame, I didn't know how to catch them and check them over. I don't know if he's right that they're molting, or if they've got mites... they've been like that quite awhile. But I guess we'll find out. And they're all getting dusted whether they have them or not.

Grr... bf really pisses me off sometimes... he does love his chickens, but doesn't care about them the way I do, and isn't so concerned about their health and stuff, if he loses one, it's not that big a deal to him... says all the chickens are *my* thing now, well... he's had chickens for a long time, I'd never been around chickens till January... I need a bit of help with this and he can't understand that!

 

[Wolfpacker]

Be careful with that hydrogen peroxide. It will NOT kill the maggots and actually can contribute to killing the flesh if you use a lot of it over time. My vet said it is nearly impossible to kill the maggots because anything you could use on them to kill them is not good for putting in an open wound. That's why you have to pick them off. Another problem is they bore into the flesh and even when you think you have them all, they keep appearing.

In all of my years on earth, dealing with that maggot infested wing was about the nastiest thing I've ever dealt with. I can no longer eat chicken wings.